ViewGuide

Created Apr 15, 2012 06:34PM PST • Edited Apr 15, 2012 06:34PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Very Good 3.5

   In this gritty, dreary but fast paced remake, Daniel Craig is a disgraced journalist who gets a gig searching for a wealthy man’s (Plummer) niece who disappeared 40 years ago. In parallel with all that we get to know Rooney Mara’s troubled grunge girl with a knack for hacking and finding information. The two eventually get paired up (in more ways than one), and the result is great sleuthing, great action, some pretty raw/disturbing events – but all in all a very good action/thriller.

4. Acting

   Good 3.0

   Daniel Craig is a good fit for the focused Mikael Blomkvist. Dedicated to an outcome despite opportunities to take an easier way out. Rooney Mara is a standout as the battered kid Lisbeth Salander. Christopher Plummer is his usual big-screen-presence self. I also liked Stellan Skarsgard as a psycho bad guy. Also not a bad job by Yorick van Wageningen as the sadistic Bjurman.

5. Male Stars Good 3.0

6. Female Stars Good 3.0

7. Female Costars Good 3.0

8. Male Costars Good 3.0

10. Film

    Very Good 3.5

    I didn’t compare to the original – which I never made it through. At face value, I think it is a great job at capturing the dreariness of the surroundings and the in-bred darkness of the characters involved. And through it all, old-fashioned good storytelling and tight action and thrills.

11. Direction Very Good 3.5

12. Play Very Good 3.5

13. Music Very Good 3.5

14. Visuals Very Good 3.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Horrid 4.2

    Two rape scenes: guy gets girl, and girl gets guy back. The latter makes swallowing the former very slightly easier.

17. Sex Lewd 4.2

18. Violence Savage 4.2

19. Rudeness Nasty 4.2

21. Reality

    Surreal 2.1

22. Circumstantial Surreal 2.1

23. Biological Surreal 2.1

24. Physical Surreal 2.1